Chapter 39

Finally, she looked away and resettled. "Fiona showed me a photo album earlier today. They kept tabs on me growing up. School pictures and stuff. There were some shots of me and my sisters when I was an infant before the adoption. Mara and my mother, too. I look like her," she added quietly.

He cinched his arms tighter, unsure how to respond. Like her, he'd been pissed off at what they'd done to her and how easily they'd cast her aside. But the more intel he gained on the circumstances, the harder it was to dispute their intentions. The Venatores had been hunting her kind for centuries, and had they been aware of her existence, she might not be here today. She was the final link in this fated chain. Erase her, and it wiped out any chance for breaking it.

Still, he couldn't imagine what it had been like for her growing up. Thinking she was unwanted. Unloved. A freak, as she'd claimed. He hadn't had the best upbringing, but he'd always had his brothers. No matter what, he could and wou